Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to make a few comments because I was encouraged yesterday. The motions that were made yesterday -- the Minister indicated that he was in agreement with those motions. However, I would like to speak to those motions in that some of the contractors that I have spoken to regarding the building of houses and government contracts have indicated to me that there is one concern that they consistently have, and that is in hiring northern native people they find that they are never sure that their employee will be at work the next morning, especially the hunters. Sometimes the hunter goes out and is weathered out.
This is one area that has been raised by a number of different contractors when I spoke to them, when we spoke about northern contractors and how we would like to see more of them getting the contracts that are given by the government. I am wondering if there is any way that we could create some incentive to hire Northerners, as far as contractors are concerned.
Another concern that was raised is that when they hire Northerners there is a time line that is set by the government that is too strict, too rigid, that they are not able to extend a contract period. And if a contractor has many native people hired and some of them are hunters and are not able to get back, is there not a way we could maybe ease up on the time lines that are created by the government when they have native employees.